The Nike Hoop Summit World team was officially announced today, complementing the USA roster which was announced in January. The game is scheduled for Friday, April 7th at the Moda Center, in Portland, Oregon at 7:00 PM PST (10:00 PM EST), a contrast to previous years when it was held on Saturday afternoon.

DraftExpress was once again in attendance at the National Prep Showcase in New Haven, Connecticut where some of the nation's top prep schools were in action. We take a closer look at some of the elite 2012 prospects, including Mitch McGary, Ricky Ledo, T.J. Warren, Hanner Perea and Jakarr Sampson.

On day two in Treviso, the morning drill sessions were much more chippy and intense than day one and the stands filled up a whole lot faster. The buzz around the camp reached a fever pitch today, as the realization of the urgency involved in this three day setting began to set in.

Tim Grover and Mike Procopio are working hard in Chicago helping a dozen prospects or so prepare for their NBA draft private workouts, including Jordan Hill, Jonny Flynn and Chase Budinger. We were able to spend the weekend with them and get a firsthand look at what they are working on with the players in their gym. Here is what we learned.

One of the weaker positions in this years draft, the small forward spot is one of the hardest to analyze due to the diversity of the prospects available. Demar DeRozan headlines a group of players facing a lot of questions about how their games will translate to the next level.

Not quite at the level it was last year, the Pac-10 is regardless still fairly strong as far as high-level NBA prospects go, although it clearly doesn't have the depth it did last season. Arizona State's James Harden leads the way in terms of returning prospects, followed by Arizona products Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, as well as UCLA's Darren Collison and Arizona State's Jeff Pendergraph.

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament saw most of the top prospects in the draft eliminated from contention after only or two games, which is a major change compared to years past. As opposed to last year, where we could see six of the eventual top 9 picks in the draft just by showing up for the Final Four, or 9 of the top 14 in the Sweet 16 (in 2006 that rose to 10 of 14), this years group of NBA GMs will not be anywhere near as lucky. That is, unless a major shakeup happens on our board, caused by previously unheralded prospects moving up dramatically after monumental performances in the Sweet 16 and on. This year, only 5 of the projected 14 lottery picks are still standing going into the Sweet 16, meaning that the real-game evaluation period has mostly come to a close.

In this article we take a look at the prospects still remaining in the Sweet 16, as well as sum up how the players who have been knocked out looked in their last game.

We kick off our weekly NCAA performers series with deeper looks at three lottery prospects-- O.J Mayo of USC, Chase Budinger of Arizona, and Darrell Arthur of Kansas, as well as the man who has been stealing much of Arthur's thunder this year, Darnell Jackson.

We begin our annual look at the top returning NBA draft prospects in each of the high-major NCAA conferences with possibly the most intriguing of them all: the Pac-10. Lottery talent abounds at the top with Chase Budinger, Brook Lopez, Darren Collison and DeVon Hardin, while we find a true sleeper at the end in Arizona's Jordan Hill.

It's time to take a look at the forwards in our player-by-player recap of the U-19 World Championship. Here we find some of the best prospects seen in Novi Sad, including Nicolas Batum, Michael Beasley or Víctor Claver.

DraftExpress spent three days at the Division B of the U-18 European Championships hosted in Sofia (Bulgaria), a propitious setting to look for new prospects in marginal markets, while also a very interesting competition itself given the surprising contrasts between the different National Teams. Check what we found there.

Day Two of the Reebok Eurocamp in Treviso featured a full morning of drills followed by an evening session with three games. The last and most interesting one pitted some of the top young prospects at the camp against a group of American high schoolers (including William Buford and Malcolm Lee) as well as the surprise of the day, Bill Walker.

The 2007 edition of the Reebok Eurocamp taking place in Treviso, Italy, is on the march. Despite a good amount of players pulling out, the camp has still been able to gather a very nice bunch of prospects, either for the NBA or Europe. Nobody really made a superb impression in the first day. The top stories where French playmaker Rodrigue Beaubois impressing enough to get six NBA promises in the second round, Marco Belinelli in a somewhat disappointing performance, and the point guard duo Anton Ponkrashov and Rudy Mbemba showing some of the stuff that draw some buzz around them last year.

Established as arguably the top annual friendly tournament for national teams, Douai perfectly works as a first base for these squads in their preparation for the various summer championships. This edition featured a combination of U-19 and U-20 teams (respectively preparing the World and the European Championships). France, Lithuania, USA, Australia, Israel and Germany are the participants. Before heading to Treviso, we spent a couple of days in Douai to see what these teams have to offer.

[c]Mustafa Shakur ends his NCAA career with another uneven performance[/c]

A look at the prospects who saw their stock drop or remain neutral in the second day of games at the NCAA tournament.

Kevin Durant has an average performance by his standards, but still finishes with 27 points. Alando Tucker wakes up early enough to not see his team fall to #15 seed Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton put in mediocre efforts against UNLV and are therefore already on their way home. That and much much more inside.

Why is it that players with ?it? often seem to have nicknames that make reference to a power beyond the physical?

Ervin ?Magic? Johnson, Hakeem ?The Dream? Olajuwon, Shawn ?The Matrix? Marion- all earned nicknames for their other-worldly basketball abilities, but the qualities that came to define their games on the deepest level seem to point to something outside of the realm of basketball for the source of their unique artistic powers on the court.

Being able to observe a young player grow into the type of talent that is capable of taking over a game through willing these moments that create nicknames is a rare treat for any basketball fan. Like watching Neo discover his control of the Matrix, fans in Toronto have been privy to another such becoming in the form of their first pick overall, Andrea Bargnani.

Andrea Bargnani had Raptors fans scared. If not scared, then at least a little nervous. For a player drafted number one and with all the accompanying expectations, he was struggling. Lost on defense, unsure of his role offensively, and generally looking like a fish out of water. ?Il Mago?, as he?s known in his native country, began to cause some analysts to question whether the young Italian was performing a disappearing act, the kind that would even make David Copperfield jealous.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and all of a sudden the player with a reputation for doing magic tricks on the court is beginning to re-appear as a key contributor off the bench for the struggling Raptors. As part of a series of articles examining the progress of high profile rookies, DraftExpress is putting Bargnani under the spotlight to chart his development throughout the season.

In part one of our four part article about the top International prospects in this year?s draft, we?ll look at three power forwards who are projected in various spots in our mock draft. Andrea Bargnani is a name that has become well known to NBA draft fans everywhere over the past two years, and he carries the torch as far as European prospects in this draft are concerned. Joel Freeland was unknown to most NBA scouts up until two weeks ago, but he too might end up cracking the first round if the buzz from his latest batch of workouts is any indication. Vladimir Veremeenko is probably the one that NBA GMs heard first of any player on this list, but as is all too often the case, waiting too long to enter the draft has hurt him in the eyes of scouts when considering the lack of significant improvement he?s shown since he first emerged.

It was once thought that June of 2006 would be Greg Oden?s moment to shine. He would be working out for NBA teams, going through the Pre-Draft combine, and preparing for life the in the NBA. Instead, Oden and several other probable lottery picks from the high school class of 2006 are heading off to summer school.

While the age limit has left this month?s draft in a bit of a weakened state, it stands to make the 2007 Draft a truly special affair. The high school class of 2006 is one of the strongest in recent memory, and potential ?one and done? candidates will soon be popping up everywhere. The following is a short run down of which incoming freshmen to pay particularly close attention to.

The high school class of 2006 is one of the best in recent memory. Unfortunately for them however, they will be forced to attend college for at least one year under the NBA?s new age limit. Even so, over 20 NBA scouts were in attendance Wednesday night to watch stars such as Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Thaddeus Young, and the rest of the top high school players in the country take part in the most recognizable all star game our country has to offer.

Here are our observations on some of the top players playing in the game. Please keep in mind that we have seen every one of the players play before, so we may refer back to certain things that stick out in our memory from the past.

Like every year, the Spanish King?s Cup becomes one of the hottest spots in NBA international scouting, a perfect opportunity to watch the cream of the ACB League (probably the strongest in Europe) in a very competitive environment in one arena over a few days. Unlike what happens in other countries with monotonous cup competitions, the Cup in Spain is a very prestigious tournament that every team looks forward to participating in and winning. The fans love it as well, as they proved once again packing the Madrid Sports Palace last week for every single game.

Previous editions of this same tournament saw the likes of Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez blossoming. From last year, three participants were selected in the 2005 draft (Fran Vazquez, Mickaël Gelabale and Axel Hervelle), while four more signed as free agents with an NBA team (Arvydas Macijauskas, Fabricio Oberto, José Manuel Calderón and Pat Burke). It wouldn?t be a stretch to say that because of the fact that every team in the NBA is represented here, including numerous GM?s and player personnel directors, these could be the most important games of the year as far as showing NBA potential is concerned.

Part two of our two part series looks at the undrafted free agents in Spain as well as players that have already been drafted in the past few years and whose rights are still owned by NBA franchises.

The Euroleague?s regular season finished up this past week, and in our effort to keep DraftExpress? visitors informed about the most important basketball competition in the world outside the NBA, particularly concerning draft prospects, we take a look at the best youngsters playing in this tough and demanding environment. The players in this article are ranked according to their overall performance, relative to their roles and the strength of the squad they play for rather than their NBA potential.

With Andrea Bargnani and Tiago Splitter currently being the only realistic international lottery prospects for this year?s draft, there isn?t a matchup outside of the NCAA that could be any more intriguing for us than Tau Vitoria vs. Benetton Treviso in the Euroleague. The interest increases when we take into account that these two squads are among the finest in all of Europe with both youngsters playing important roles in their teams.

Halfway through the group stage of the Euroleague we take a look at how some of the most talented young prospects in Europe have been faring in this tough and extremely demanding competition so far. Some prospects have received numerous opportunities to prove their worth to their teams, coaches and the omnipresent NBA scouts in attendance at each game, and have stepped up to the plate in a huge way with some magnificent performances. Others have either not received enough opportunities, not taken the ones they?ve been handed or have completely regressed compared with what was expected out of them.

Part two of our Euroleague Stock focuses in on the prospects who seen their stock rise in the first seven games of the season so far. Andrea Bargnani headlines this pack, with fellow Italian Marco Belinelli not far behind.

DraftExpress' Italian scout, Marco Fracasso, who was present at the Eurocamp in his hometown of Treviso for the 2nd straight year has the following report to present. It was a rather shallow camp as far as this year's draft is concerned, with only one real NBA prospect who is surely staying in, but with a few interesting International prospects who need to be followed for the future regardless.

Strengths Bargnani is a prototypical player in terms of the physical attributes and raw skills that scouts salivate over in their search for the next young European (star?) big man.

First his physical attributes. He's tall (easily a 7 footer), and a very fluid athlete that runs the court very well, has a very nice first step and is a decent leaper. He'll never be a power player in the paint, but his frame suggests that his bulk will be adequate for the power forward position in the future.

Second are his skills. What distinguishes him from most American prospects his age is his complete outside game. He can handle the ball pretty well, and has a great stroke from anywhere on the court, complete with a quick and high release point. He can catch and shoot or put the ball on the floor to beat any big man off the dribble, going aggressively to the rim to finish, or stop and pull up for a sweet jump shot. What sets him apart from other 7 footers is his coordination and quickness to put the ball on the floor to drive to the basket.

He's going to be a match-up nightmare in his prime once he gets stronger, probably being the player most resembling a young Dirk Nowitzki that you've seen in a while.

This season he didn't have too many opportunities to demonstrate his skills, but showed great flashes when given a chance while playing against the best competition you will find outside of the NBA.

NBA people surely remember him because of the very solid performance he had in a preseason game against the Toronto Raptors, showing he can beat players off the dribble numerous times, even a very quick power forward like Chris Bosh.

Bargnani always plays in the flow of the offense, being too young at this point to afford any kind of selfishness on a veteran team with a defensive minded coach like Ettore Messina. He sometimes forced a few situations this year, but those were usually on broken plays, showing personality and creativity while trying to solve tough situations rather than selfishness to take more shots.

Andrea is very active on defense, being more effective than what someone would expect against European small forwards thanks to his quick feet. He tries to do his best against big men too, the kind of players he will likely be matched against in his future career. While it's not easy to imagine him guarding small forwards full time in the NBA, his versatility won't expose his team defensively in cases of rotations and switches on pick and rolls.